Menu

Watch out! Trump is just the new politics of distraction

With Hilary Clinton soaring out of the Democratic National Convention and the leaders of his own party deserting him in droves, including Maine’s Susan Collins, every day Donald Trump’s odds of becoming the next President of the United States are dwindling.

On Tuesday, The Washington Post practically eulogized his campaign, asserting that “there’s only one possible conclusion: Hillary Clinton will defeat Donald Trump in November.”

You might think Trump would be devastated by the tables turning against him, but he seems totally fine with it. At this point, I doubt he even wants the job particularly.

As I see it, Trump’s just kind of farting around these days, basking in the growing monstrosity of his public image, biding his time until he has an epiphany for an even grander scheme or launches his next ultimate reality TV show.

I think it’s a serious stretch to even refer to this as a “political campaign.”

Whether you’re a state rep from a small town or the President of the United States, no politician governs alone. You need colleagues. Friends. Partners. You need people who’ll help you build support for key pieces of legislation, or you simply can’t get anything done.

Any time a public figure takes a strong stand on an issue, they risk losing people, but Trump isn’t taking principled stands. And he doesn’t care about legislation.

He’s insulting the families of war heroes and issuing thinly veiled death threats against Clinton. He isn’t losing potential supporters over his politics. He’s doing everything he can to alienate and disgust them.

It’s the Shock Jock Doctrine. Soon the only voters he’ll have left will be his core demographic of paranoid white misanthropes, and frankly, there just aren’t enough of them to win.

Yet, Trump is undeniably winning at his own game.

This is a guy who’s spent decades putting his name on everything from steaks to ostentatious apartment buildings, and his name has never been bigger than it is right now. His revolting antics are now featured prominently on every newspaper, every TV show and every Facebook feed.

Trump’s going out in a blaze of glory and flipping everybody off on his way out the door.

If things keep going this way, it may just be a matter of time before he and his Slovenian wife move back to the former Soviet Union and join the ranks of the Russian oligarchs, a world where his blustering dickishness would fit right in.

If things get really bad, his hero Vladimir Putin could offer him political asylum. Perhaps he’d even end up being roommates with Edward Snowden.

How about that for a sitcom?

Or better yet, how about we stop gawking at Trump’s latest travesty and instead get involved in the efforts where we, as progressive Mainers, can really make an impact?

If you want to stand up to the one percent, don’t just sit there distracted, posting another Trump meme to Facebook. Volunteer!

There are some vitally important referendum questions slated for the Maine ballot in November.